RE: [Story]The difference is, a Lightbulb stops working...
06-11-2024, 04:17 PM (This post was last modified: 06-11-2024, 04:25 PM by Dartz.)
06-11-2024, 04:17 PM (This post was last modified: 06-11-2024, 04:25 PM by Dartz.)
And I just realised I forgot to post this bit:
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In: Boards >> System >> News >> Current Events
From: Needtocomeupwithaname (Fenspace Gargoyle) (Original Poster)
Posted on November 18th, 2025: Today at the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Irregularities in Governance on Space Station Frigga:
Jet Jaguar herself steps up before Judge McRopus, and speaks in her defence. To the great surprise of everyone, she speaks coldly, clearly and with evidence of great preparation. Those who’d been expecting a Giulianian meltdown and rant at the dark forces arrayed against her are left disappointed. What ever manner of fool Baron Frigga is, she has enough of a mind to trust in her Barrister to save her cybernetic ass.
After walking through her career with Great Justice, establishing her background, bona-fides
She confirms a lot of what we already knew or suspected. She calmly explains the why, the how and what made her actions necessary. As if she’s delivering a Troubleshooter’s report to Great Justice, and not trying to talk herself out of a very hard slap on the wrists.
The Frigga Project should have been a complete disaster. A project sold by the Kayabuki government to the electorate of Venus as solving the raw materials crisis at the heart of the VTP delays - and half the price of settling a virgin rock, should have ballooned in cost five times over.
It did. And none of it appeared on Her Majesty’s books.
Kayabuki needed the project to succeed at its original budget. The loyal opposition, needed the project to fail.
And trapped in this Catch22, Jet Jaguar and the Station Council take a third option. They have the control of the means of production, after all. So they overproduce and sell on the open market, usually to other mines that lead a little help in meeting contracts. In direct violation of an agreement Her Majesty’s Government had made with Greenwood to get out of their supply contracts early. Amusingly, at least three of their customers were stations in the Greenwood orbit, who had shortfalls on their quota while conducting maintenance.
But even that didn’t come close to covering the costs.
Enter, the Moxy Fuel project. Building three new power reactors on Frigga to produce a mixed oxide fuel for Blackbird engines – a fuel which didn’t rely on a production process that could be subverted to making nuclear weapons.
And handshake agreement between Jet and Ben Rhodes got it done. Frigga gets the energy, the jobs and the payments for maintaining the equipment. Atalante gets the fuel.
For an unrepentant Cyberpunk, aghast at having to be The Man, it almost plays to her strengths. She’s punching up, breaking the unjust rules imposed from a distant, uncaring government.
Frigga’s station council reports the impossible to The Ministry of Finance. Everything is on budget – Everything is fine. The Ministry, reports this as fact. The entire Kayabuki administration relies on it to be true – even if they suspect its impossible. A little Vranyo to keep things moving.
Technically, the agreement with Greenwood is with the Tokyo government and – so long as they can claim to be completely in the dark – it wasn’t them that broke it
And then, the reactor blew itself apart – triggered by a design flaw nobody had any idea was present in the core - threatening to upset the entire balance.
And in the centre of it all, almost lost on the juicy details and the justification is this one hint at her true motivation.
“If the truth came out, then, Her Majesty’s Government might have to decide that The Natives weren’t capable of governing themselves.”
With those words from Jet’s testimony do we have Prime Minister Kayabuki’s true legacy. After years of coslifing as The British Empire, why should they be surprised that someone took them seriously on it?
Now that’s not a comfortable thought, is it?
So the secret is kept. Because Kayabuki would have the justification to act on what she almost certainly knew. And then everything would fall apart. The most damning thing of all is that it worked.
A year later, Frigga is a successful, working settlement. The Moxy Fuel Project is approaching first criticality in April 2026. The streets and corridors are vibrant with life. Frigga has become an important waystation in the Belt. Deliveries to the shipyards at Bristol are met on time.
And now the screaming begins. The Knives are about to come Out. The Loyal Opposition is already winding up for a motion of No Confidence in Her Majesty’s Government and shows all the signs of a scandal truly worthy of the Parliament they have spent so long pretending to be. Her Majesty is rumoured to be pretty pissed at Jet for kicking this off – because Jet was appointed to her position and that little fact drags the Crown into it. Public opinion in fandom has already cracked.
There’re those pale and stale ones for whom rules and order are sacred traditions passed down from generations hence, and must be respected at all costs (At least, by those we need an excuse to dislike).
And those for whom rules are really just guidelines to be fit and adapted to the situation as needed. (At least, by those we like).
I’m in two minds over all of this.
We came up here to get away from this bullshit. We thought we were better. We thought we were the enlightened ones. Freed from the shackles of the mundane politics and its bullshit, we could finally do things the *right* way - the *better* way.
We know better now. The last ten years have taught us as much. It’s enough to make one lose heart.
At the other end, there is an earnestness about Frigga’s council going to these lengths – not for personal gain or wealth, but to make their home work. Nobody got rich. Nobody siphoned off a million and built a yacht or three. Even Kayabuki, in her defence, is just playing to her base as the leader of the party of rules and order, and her belief in those rules being the foundation of society.
And the simple fact of population that means the smallest ward in Tokyo has more MP's than the entire archipelago combined, despite the importance of the Archipelago's resources.
Nobody is a Rudy Giuliani.
That, in the end, is something we can all be comforted by.
The solution to this all, in the end, may be simply to state what happened, and then let the Millenium electorate decide
For a dissenting opinion: “Can you believe these morons are in charge of people?”
----
-----------------------------------
It says a lot that I've been able to chew the cud on the same feeling for five bloody years - and still haven't changed a damned thing
----
In: Boards >> System >> News >> Current Events
From: Needtocomeupwithaname (Fenspace Gargoyle) (Original Poster)
Posted on November 18th, 2025: Today at the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Irregularities in Governance on Space Station Frigga:
Jet Jaguar herself steps up before Judge McRopus, and speaks in her defence. To the great surprise of everyone, she speaks coldly, clearly and with evidence of great preparation. Those who’d been expecting a Giulianian meltdown and rant at the dark forces arrayed against her are left disappointed. What ever manner of fool Baron Frigga is, she has enough of a mind to trust in her Barrister to save her cybernetic ass.
After walking through her career with Great Justice, establishing her background, bona-fides
She confirms a lot of what we already knew or suspected. She calmly explains the why, the how and what made her actions necessary. As if she’s delivering a Troubleshooter’s report to Great Justice, and not trying to talk herself out of a very hard slap on the wrists.
The Frigga Project should have been a complete disaster. A project sold by the Kayabuki government to the electorate of Venus as solving the raw materials crisis at the heart of the VTP delays - and half the price of settling a virgin rock, should have ballooned in cost five times over.
It did. And none of it appeared on Her Majesty’s books.
Kayabuki needed the project to succeed at its original budget. The loyal opposition, needed the project to fail.
And trapped in this Catch22, Jet Jaguar and the Station Council take a third option. They have the control of the means of production, after all. So they overproduce and sell on the open market, usually to other mines that lead a little help in meeting contracts. In direct violation of an agreement Her Majesty’s Government had made with Greenwood to get out of their supply contracts early. Amusingly, at least three of their customers were stations in the Greenwood orbit, who had shortfalls on their quota while conducting maintenance.
But even that didn’t come close to covering the costs.
Enter, the Moxy Fuel project. Building three new power reactors on Frigga to produce a mixed oxide fuel for Blackbird engines – a fuel which didn’t rely on a production process that could be subverted to making nuclear weapons.
And handshake agreement between Jet and Ben Rhodes got it done. Frigga gets the energy, the jobs and the payments for maintaining the equipment. Atalante gets the fuel.
For an unrepentant Cyberpunk, aghast at having to be The Man, it almost plays to her strengths. She’s punching up, breaking the unjust rules imposed from a distant, uncaring government.
Frigga’s station council reports the impossible to The Ministry of Finance. Everything is on budget – Everything is fine. The Ministry, reports this as fact. The entire Kayabuki administration relies on it to be true – even if they suspect its impossible. A little Vranyo to keep things moving.
Technically, the agreement with Greenwood is with the Tokyo government and – so long as they can claim to be completely in the dark – it wasn’t them that broke it
And then, the reactor blew itself apart – triggered by a design flaw nobody had any idea was present in the core - threatening to upset the entire balance.
And in the centre of it all, almost lost on the juicy details and the justification is this one hint at her true motivation.
“If the truth came out, then, Her Majesty’s Government might have to decide that The Natives weren’t capable of governing themselves.”
With those words from Jet’s testimony do we have Prime Minister Kayabuki’s true legacy. After years of coslifing as The British Empire, why should they be surprised that someone took them seriously on it?
Now that’s not a comfortable thought, is it?
So the secret is kept. Because Kayabuki would have the justification to act on what she almost certainly knew. And then everything would fall apart. The most damning thing of all is that it worked.
A year later, Frigga is a successful, working settlement. The Moxy Fuel Project is approaching first criticality in April 2026. The streets and corridors are vibrant with life. Frigga has become an important waystation in the Belt. Deliveries to the shipyards at Bristol are met on time.
And now the screaming begins. The Knives are about to come Out. The Loyal Opposition is already winding up for a motion of No Confidence in Her Majesty’s Government and shows all the signs of a scandal truly worthy of the Parliament they have spent so long pretending to be. Her Majesty is rumoured to be pretty pissed at Jet for kicking this off – because Jet was appointed to her position and that little fact drags the Crown into it. Public opinion in fandom has already cracked.
There’re those pale and stale ones for whom rules and order are sacred traditions passed down from generations hence, and must be respected at all costs (At least, by those we need an excuse to dislike).
And those for whom rules are really just guidelines to be fit and adapted to the situation as needed. (At least, by those we like).
I’m in two minds over all of this.
We came up here to get away from this bullshit. We thought we were better. We thought we were the enlightened ones. Freed from the shackles of the mundane politics and its bullshit, we could finally do things the *right* way - the *better* way.
We know better now. The last ten years have taught us as much. It’s enough to make one lose heart.
At the other end, there is an earnestness about Frigga’s council going to these lengths – not for personal gain or wealth, but to make their home work. Nobody got rich. Nobody siphoned off a million and built a yacht or three. Even Kayabuki, in her defence, is just playing to her base as the leader of the party of rules and order, and her belief in those rules being the foundation of society.
And the simple fact of population that means the smallest ward in Tokyo has more MP's than the entire archipelago combined, despite the importance of the Archipelago's resources.
Nobody is a Rudy Giuliani.
That, in the end, is something we can all be comforted by.
The solution to this all, in the end, may be simply to state what happened, and then let the Millenium electorate decide
For a dissenting opinion: “Can you believe these morons are in charge of people?”
----
-----------------------------------
It says a lot that I've been able to chew the cud on the same feeling for five bloody years - and still haven't changed a damned thing
I love the smell of rotaries in the morning. You know one time, I got to work early, before the rush hour. I walked through the empty carpark, I didn't see one bloody Prius or Golf. And that smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole carpark, smelled like.... ....speed.
One day they're going to ban them.